The former flame of Michael Winner will be on the stage of the New Victoria Theatre in a production of Somerset Maugham’s The Letter.

For this tense psychological thriller Jenny fills the frock of Leslie Crosbie, the role model of any bunny-boiling femme fatale worth her strychnine since Bette Davis immortalised her in the 1940 film version of the story.

“She’s either schizophrenic or a total monster,” said Jenny of her latest stage incarnation. “She’s almost bipolar. There are some people who can have two personalities within them and she is a bit like that. It’s almost like playing two different people but it’s very fun to play.”

The Letter opens with a moonlit murder in colonial Mandalay. Jenny’s character is put in the frame as the murderess and the plot unfolds with more twists and turns than an angry snake.

Alongside Jenny is Anthony Andrews, of Brideshead Revisited fame. He plays Howard Joyce, the lawyer employed by Leslie’s trusting husband, to defend her against the murder charge. Jenny said: “It’s a great psychological thriller and it’s great fun to do. It’s a great cast and I love it.

Everyone’s terrific in their parts and I love them all. “It’s not really anything like the film. Hollywood being Hollywood, they changed the ending; however that’s by the by.

“When I’m considering a role I look for something different, something that challenges me and this role certainly does that.”

Jenny has been a regular on our screens, big and small, for more than 25 years. On the stage she has played a variety of roles including the downtrodden Jane Eyre to the outrageous Constance in another of Somerset Maugham’s plays, The Constant Wife.

She said: “I have been blessed in the roles I have had in terms of films, television and the theatre. There have been many, many highlights.

“With the theatre I had such fun with Tom Conti in Noel Coward’s Present Laughter. “I had such fun on that, I love making people laugh and I don’t often get the chance to do that. “I played a character who was really brittle and English and Tom said why don’t you play her as a Russian — it turned out just to be a licence to play it outrageously. It was a stroke of genius on Tom’s part.”

Jenny appeared in the Oscar-winning 1982 short film A Shocking Accident and this year gained recognition from the Chardonnay-sipping classes when she appeared in the hallowed pages of Who’s Who for the first time.

But apparently such accolades have not gone to her head. Jenny said: “The film getting an Oscar didn’t really affect me much. Stephen Spielberg had a meeting with me and asked me about being in a film he was doing but I didn’t get the part. I was just rather proud of being associated with it.

“With Who’s Who I never really thought about it. I suppose I feel a bit of a fraud really because I’m just getting on with my work and getting on with my life and then I was asked to be in it.

“I had forgotten about it to be quite honest but I do feel proud and quite surprised really to have been asked.”

See Jenny as the murderous Leslie Crosbie at the New Victoria Theatre from Monday through to Saturday. Call 01483 545900 to book a seat.